


Fairytale

by MidoriKurenaiYume



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Drama, Gen, Heartache, Mentioning of Abuse, characters as kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2018-12-25 07:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12030978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: Collection of unrelated one-shots, set in different eras, centred around Gilgamesh.





	1. You can’t struggle your way towards it

**Author's Note:**

> These will be short standalone one-shots that focus on Gilgamesh. The only thing that they have in common is that they aren't happy stories.
> 
> Title: from a beautiful Kalafina song, their 3rd single and also part of the album 'Seventh Heaven'. The chapters' titles are lyrics from the song, translated by the canta-per-me forum ;)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are impossible, but we only realize it once it's too late.  
> Gilgamesh's era AU.

...

There was once a strong and handsome king in Uruk. He was still very young, but he had already become famous because of his impressive feats. His name was Gilgamesh, and he was rumoured to be the son of a goddess, for his unearthly charm and undefeated abilities, and everyone was in awe of him.

Even the gods were impressed by him, although Gilgamesh arrogantly disregarded them.

His prowess was however such that the goddess of love and war herself, Ishtar, offered herself to him.

But Gilgamesh was not interested in her, and dared reject her.

The goddess became furious at the arrogance of the mortal man, and she immediately decided to take her revenge on him. She could not harm him directly, for he was indeed the child of another goddess, but she could influence the events in the mortal world. Therefore, she used a piece of clay to create a weapon to defeat and kill Gilgamesh, a weapon identical to a human being, and named it Enkidu.

However, even if they fought at the beginning, Enkidu and Gilgamesh quickly came to realize and acknowledge each other’s worth and actually became friends.

The goddess, livid, sent a beast to kill them both, but once again her plans were disrupted when they prevailed on the monster together.

Her fury surpassing anything else, still unable to injure Gilgamesh directly, the goddess decided to attack him another way. Since he and Enkidu had become friends, to harm Gilgamesh Ishtar took Enkidu from him. She had created him, she had the right to destroy him, and she sent a deathly illness on him.

Gilgamesh mourned the only friend he had ever had, and the goddess finally considered herself satisfied.

This tragedy made Gilgamesh realize that death was even more powerful than the gods he had so openly defied. Gods would not harm him directly, but one day, death would.

He was not going to allow death to be more powerful than him; he _would_ find a way to defeat death. So he went in search of the secret of immortality.

During his journey, he went through several other places, meeting many other rulers. He considered none of them worthy of knowing the reason for his quest, at least until he arrived at one kingdom where he discovered, by chance, that its warrior king was in fact a young woman who concealed her gender.

Contrary to him, Arthur – or rather, Arturia – wasn’t interested in immortality nor in long life; all she wanted was to protect her people by shouldering their burdens.

Gilgamesh told her what he thought of that.

“It’s a dream worthy only of the foolish.”

The fact that she wasn’t swayed in the least by his words of contempt couldn’t help making him admire her steadfast determination, and he decided she could receive an answer when she asked him about the reason for his wanderings.

He was disappointed when she didn’t comment on his search for immortality and merely wished him well on his quest.

He left her kingdom and finally managed to meet an old man in disguise, Utnapishtim, the only human who had become immortal, and who ultimately agreed to tell him the secret for it.

Continuing with his mission after receiving the important information, Gilgamesh therefore managed to find the plant that gave immortality, almost dying in the process of plucking it.

He was covered in blood and sweat when he started the journey to go back and, starving and almost hallucinating from lack of water, when he found a river he dropped his clothes and the precious herb to lean in to drink and then wash the grime off himself.

It was just a short while, just a brief moment, but it was too long. While he was in the water, a snake crawled nearby and ate the plant.

When he realized it, it was too late. His chance at becoming immortal had vanished in the mouth of a reptile.

He was not going to be able to beat death.

Forced to recognize his defeat, the second after not having been able to stop his best friend’s death, Gilgamesh began his long journey back.

He was shocked to find the kingdom he had passed earlier completely in ruins and divided by internal conflicts. He found the woman-king lying in the battlefield, having overpowered her opponents but having been fatally wounded herself at the same time.

In her last moments, she recognized him, smiled weakly and asked him if he had found immortality.

He only shook his head, but was surprised when she only smiled again and pronounced her last words before dying.

“Your dream was the same as mine – worthy only of the foolish. And we were both fools.”

He didn’t have the time to give her a reply, but he did not forget her words after burying her.

Finally back from his unsuccessful quest, he took up the kingship of Uruk once again. He had lost his best and only friend, he had lost the possibility to have immortality, and he had ultimately lost the opportunity to know the strange woman-king as well.

They had met so briefly, so fleetingly, and they had both failed in their endeavours.

If they had had time, it might have been interesting to learn more about her, about what had made her conceal her gender, what had made her become king, how the events of her life had shaped her. As she had been able to understand him, he might have been able to understand her as well.

But it was too late.

He had his own kingdom to rule, he couldn’t and wouldn’t waste his thoughts on the dead, no matter the fact that he was never going to forget them.

They could have had the possibility to meet under different circumstances and get to know one another for real.

Maybe. In another lifetime.

...

END


	2. I remembered the dream that I had in my childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilgamesh's life throughout the years, the good and the bad.  
> Modern day AU.

…

He was four when he learned what friendship and protectiveness meant, as he felt a strong sense of displeasure when he saw other children making fun of Enkidu and even trying to push him to the ground. He had spent time with Enkidu during the past weeks, finding him to be a bright child with whom he enjoying playing.

Intervening and chasing those little cowards away was therefore something he did with great satisfaction.

…

He was seven when he met Arturia for the first time, and she made an impression when she tried to stab his hand with a fork.

She also succeeded, and it was painful. She was later forced to apologize by her mother, while his own mother said that it was Gilgamesh's fault for provoking her.

All he had done was not intervene as Kirei buried the white doll's hair in the sand, trapping her and making her cry. Arturia had come to her aid; Gilgamesh had then received merely a fork in the hand when he had disdainfully declared that he didn't help out mongrels.

At least he had not received the punch Kirei had gotten.

…

He was ten when they met again in school, and he found out that they were in the same class.

…

He was thirteen when they talked a few times in the yard. She talked with everyone, although she wasn’t close to anyone.

…

He was fourteen when he decided he was going to marry her one day, although he only wrote it in his mental list of things to do in life. Not get bored, stay away from mongrels, or rather, have the mongrels stay away from him, make sure to only drink the best wines in the world, and marry Arturia.

…

He was fifteen when she became close enough with him to tell him about herself, about her strict household and family, and he told her about his own, which was much more relaxed.

…

He was sixteen when she became his friend.

…

He was eighteen when they had a row over the way he treated a girl he had rejected. By the end of it, Arturia told him that she never wanted to see him again and that she was done with his lack of consideration for the feelings of others. He thought she was exaggerating, but she wasn't.

From that day on, Arturia didn’t speak to him again.

…

He was still eighteen when he stomped over his pride and sought her out, even when she avoided him and regarded him with nothing but cold anger. She listened to his apology, told him he was an arrogant idiot and walked away.

But the following day, when he met her in school, she talked to him again.

…

He was twenty when he saw her kiss someone else.

…

He was twenty-two when his current girlfriend tried to pressure him into marriage. He broke up with her on the same day.

…

He was twenty-three when he couldn’t remember the amount of people he had been with, and in fact, he didn’t even remember who they _were_.

…

He was twenty-four when he received an invitation to Arturia's wedding. He tore it to shreds and had Enkidu make his excuses.

Then he thought better about it, and called her, asking to see her in person. She was surprised, but agreed. When he saw her, he told her he didn't care whom she was marrying nor why; he told her he wanted to marry her himself, but he was too much of an idiot to tell her, while he should have done so at fourteen already. He told her he was not going to be at her wedding, and took his leave.

Arturia's large eyes, filled with astonishment as she stared at him, were both satisfying and hurtful.

She had never been aware of the fact that he loved her.

…

He was twenty-six when he got his final promotion at work, obtaining the position of head director. He wasn’t surprised, as he had focused solely on work for the past two years, using it as distraction from his stupid feelings.

He also managed to complete his collection of precious wines a few months later, and wasn’t entirely surprised when that accomplishment didn’t make him feel any real satisfaction.

…

He was twenty-seven when he heard from Enkidu that Arturia was going to court with her partner, as he had been arrested for psychological and physical abuse. He found out that she hadn’t married him after all, and she won the trial against him.

Enkidu told him to go see her, but he refused. He had already stomped over his pride once for her, and it had only broken him.

…

He was twenty-eight when he received a call from Arturia, who asked him if he wanted to hang out with her. Just to talk, she said.

He agreed.

They did in fact only talk about what had happened those years. Arturia apologized for never realizing what he felt for her, and told him she was hurt, because she valued his friendship. He said nothing for a long while, but then asked her simply if she was free the following week to meet again.

She smiled at him.

…

He was still twenty-eight when she kissed him.

…

He was thirty when he moved in with her.

…

He was thirty-three when one single occasion of not being careful ended up in Arturia getting pregnant. They were both worried, because it was unplanned, but decided they were not averse to the idea of having a child.

However, they ended up not having to make a real decision. Three weeks later, Arturia had a miscarriage, a painful, dangerous one. She almost died. She was told by the medics that she was unlikely to ever conceive again; the physical abuse she had suffered at the hands of her former partner had damaged her body.

…

He was still thirty-three when he first saw Arturia cry, and he cried with her. They had never seriously thought about having children, but they had now that possibility taken from them.

…

He was  _still_ thirty-three when both he and Arturia realized that, if they really wanted to be parents, they had the option of adopting a child. They discussed it at length, for months, and ultimately agreed on it.

…

He was thirty-four when they adopted a girl and a boy.

The girl, Sakura, was very young, and had been given away from her father to a family that Gilgamesh knew from rumours to be cruel and inhumanly heartless. With great difficulties, but unwilling to give up on her, they managed to adopt her, as Arturia was firm in not allowing her to suffer a horrible fate.

The boy was a serious, shy guy called Lancelot. He had been living alone with a group of wild people who had tried to twist his mind, but Arturia had been swift enough in taking him away from there.

They chose to adopt children whom they could help.

…

He was thirty-five when both Sakura and Lancelot stopped having nightmares about their previous lives, and Arturia smiled at him when that happened, because it meant that they were doing something right as parents.

…

He was thirty-nine when he helped Arturia organize meetings between their legally adopted daughter, Sakura, and her biological sister, Rin. The meetings were secret, because of the foolishness of the girls' family, but since the sisters loved each other and desperately wished not to lose one another, they didn’t care.

…

He was forty-one when he had a fight with Arturia about the rules to give their kids as they became teenagers. They fought for several days, until they both compromised and made up. They only wanted the best for their children, after all.

…

He was forty-seven when both Lancelot and Sakura got completely drunk at a party, and both he and Arturia were furious at them. The following morning, the children had a splitting headache, and they had a large row with their parents.

Sakura and Lancelot ended up asking them why they were taken in. Gilgamesh and Arturia had never wanted to make their children feel guilty with the adoption, but they had not told them what had made them decide on adoption in the first place.

So Arturia told them about her own story of physical abuse and subsequent miscarriage, and by the end of it, both children were crying with her, their previous argument forgotten. Still with the headache caused by too much drinking, they both promised to be more careful when it came to alcohol.

Gilgamesh however disagreed with Arturia in this case, and told their children they should not stop drinking altogether, but simply restrict themselves to quality stuff.

Arturia half-heartedly threatened to make him sleep on the couch.

…

He was fifty when both Lancelot and Sakura left for college, and while he didn't let it affect him outwardly, he still had to make an effort to stay composed. But even if their children left their house, he and Arturia were still together, and that was all that mattered.

…

He was fifty-six when Sakura called them in tears to tell them she was pregnant, even though her boyfriend had left her as soon as he had found out. She came to stay with them, and they looked after her; Lancelot came by often too, to support his sister. Gilgamesh was proud that Arturia did not let Sakura's pregnancy remind her of her own devastating experience with miscarriage.

…

He was fifty-nine when, his grandson playing with toy blocks in front of him, he saw Arturia pick up the phone and turn white as one of Sakura's friends told her that she had seen Sakura's ex-boyfriend near her house.

They rushed to their daughter, and arrived just in time to save her life.

Her ex-boyfriend was arrested and sent to prison, while Sakura went through therapy, and they made sure to always be there with her to support her.

…

He was sixty-one when Lancelot, who had gotten engaged a few months before, found out that his fiancée was having an affair with his best friend. Lancelot was heartbroken, and once he somewhat recovered, Gilgamesh sternly advised him that, if he really needed to be in a relationship with a woman, he should look for a woman more like his mother.

…

He was sixty-five when Sakura had a second child, with the man she had married, Shirou. Gilgamesh didn't particularly like him, but he was kind to Sakura and loved her dearly, contrary to her previous boyfriend, therefore he grudgingly accepted his presence.

Lancelot had found out that indeed a relationship with a woman wasn't for him, and had therefore gotten engaged with a man, and they couldn’t have been happier together.

…

He was seventy, with two children and two grandchildren, and when he got sick with an illness that he felt was going to take his life, he realized that he had never actually gotten married to Arturia.

To the surprise of their children, who had not known that they weren’t married, and with Enkidu as witness, he finally married Arturia, and even if he was in a hospital bed and was ill, he had never felt better.

…

He was seventy-one when he was given a pacemaker, and he found himself being actually grateful to that small device, because it allowed him to spend a little more time with his beloved Arturia.

…

He was seventy-six when Arturia died in her sleep, next to him. When he realized she was no more, he went back to lie next to her and closed his eyes, knowing that once he fell asleep, he wouldn't wake up again.

…

He was still seventy-six when he died, and while his children and grandchildren mourned him and his beloved wife, they were glad that they had passed on while being together.

…

END


	3. I knew an eternity where nothing would ever end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If every person from Fate/Zero were a child playing in the park.  
> Weird, dystopian AU.

…

xOx

…

They’re all outside, in the kindergarten’s park, to enjoy one of the last summer afternoons, and they all have their own way of enjoying themselves.

Ryuunosuke plays with the stuffed toys, but only those with anthropomorphic forms, and seems keen on twisting them into odd shapes.

Caster takes the stuffed toys from Ryuunosuke every time he is done with abusing one, and methodically stabs them all with a knife he took from the canteen.

Lancer and Saber play together quietly in building a sand castle and another one with toy blocks, not interacting but not disturbing each other either.

Kayneth sends furious glances in Lancer’s direction the entire time, but he is kept at bay by Sola-Ui, who is chatting with him while stealing frequent glances in Lancer’s direction too, with the difference that hers are followed by a blush. And Kayneth sees this, therefore he doesn’t intend to approach Lancer.

Archer is sitting on a bench, openly bored, observing everything and everyone without interest. More often than not, however, his eyes are on Saber, not missing any change in her facial expressions.

Saber is focused on her task, but sometimes she does look up towards the other kids, meeting the eyes of others. Twice she meets Archer’s gaze, but she doesn’t understand why he stares at her.

Tokiomi is displeased by Archer’s lack of interactions with others, but doesn’t dare say anything.

Rider plays with Waver, drags him along and runs around everywhere in the park. He gets a fleeting interest in the castles Saber and Lancer are building and tries to bring them down with a few kicks. However, Saber always intercepts him with the small scoops she uses. Her toys break in blocking his unsurprisingly strong blows, but the castles she’s building remain intact, untouched by Rider’s assault.

Irisviel ghosts around, close to Saber, and attempts to braid her hair. Politely, Saber doesn’t allow it, but very protectively makes sure no one comes close to her, at least until eventually she leaves Irisviel with taciturn Maiya, who unemotionally lets Irisviel happily play with her hair.

Kiritsugu and Kirei send ice-cold, stony stares at each other across the park, but never approach one another.

Kirei passes by Archer a few times, who talks more to him than Tokiomi, but Tokiomi doesn’t notice.

Assassin sleeps in the middle of the park, making Rider almost trip over him and send him glares.

Berserker runs around the park, a few times attempting to pull at people’s clothes randomly, with a strange preference for Saber, but he doesn’t manage to touch anyone and always goes back to Kariya, who has a cold and sits on a bench, sullenly glaring at Tokiomi while his face-mask and blanket safely envelop him.

…

xOx

…

Eventually, Kariya is forced to go home because of his cold. The hyperactive Berserker follows, looking at Saber briefly before doing so, and then circling around Kariya as they walk home and therefore walking approximately twice the distance.

Kirei wakes up the sleeping Assassin and goes home with him, preceding Tokiomi who lingers, hoping Archer will come too, but Archer ignores him as usual, eyes fixated on Saber.

Lancer tries to shake Saber’s hand before leaving, but she merely gives him a nod, while picking up her ruined toys.

Rider also lingers a while longer, dragging a sleepy Waver around.

Irisviel, Maiya and Kiritsugu have long since gone home.

Kayneth snatches Lancer and brusquely puts himself to walk between him and Sola-Ui as they leave.

Caster has all the now freshly beheaded stuffed toys with him and walks home with Ryuunosuke, after a last glance in Saber’s direction.

Only Saber and Archer are left.

She finishes picking up her things, gives him a polite nod as she stands to leave. He doesn’t say anything, simply follows her.

No one else goes home alone, only Saber does, but Archer always follows her. Not too close, but still close enough. She does not walk next to him, but he still walk-follows her home.

As usual, she doesn’t notice immediately, but when she does and realizes he is not coming closer, she doesn’t say anything. It’s not acceptance on her part, but it’s not rejection either.

It’s enough though. For Archer, having Saber to himself these few moments is enough.

It’s nothing much, but it’s still something.

Saber arrives home, and Archer watches her disappear inside the house, before slowly walking home as well.

…

xOx

…

It’s too bad that it’s all a weird, shared dream, from which they will wake up soon enough.

The Fourth War is there, waiting for them.

…

xOx

…

END


End file.
